In his novel, East of Eden, John Steinbek incorporates a rather hackneyed motif: Mankind's struggle between Good and Evil. Steinbek, in indirect defense of his work's central theme, claims that this perpetual battle is truly the only human story worth telling: "We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil.I think this is the only story we have, and it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence." The story of good and evil, present throughout East of Eden, has been told in different cultures and in different ways since the beginning of Mankind. In the Garden of Eden, man first became aware that there was a difference between virtue and vice after eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. From that point on, humans had the choice to fall prey to sin or to avoid it and find God's favor. From John Proctor's struggle in The Crucible to the creature's battle in Frankenstein, mankind's battle between good and evil has been told countless times and never cease to entice. These stories, and East of Eden, have endured through the years because they tell, as Steinbek would say, "the story of mankind" in our never-ending quest to conquer evil with good. The struggle between good and evil is suffered both internally and collectively by the characters in East of Eden. Cathy, symbolizing Satan, searches meticulously in each person for some bit of evil, then tries to draw it out and exploit it. "And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is." In order to continue her corrupt ways, Cathy is forced to change her name, appearance and place of residence quite often. After murdering her parents, she becomes Catherine Amesbury After shooting Adam (WHO IS) and leaving her sons, she again changes her name, but this ti...
